In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of peach tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Polar Princess’.
The present variety was hybridized by me in 2000 as a first generation cross using an unnamed white flesh freestone nectarine designated by code number ‘5P495’ (unpatented) as the selected seed parent and ‘Snow Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,570) peach as the selected pollen parent. The fruit of this cross was gathered that summer, and the seeds were removed, cracked, stratified, germinated, and grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse. Upon reaching dormancy the seedlings were transplanted as a group to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the fruit evaluation season of 2005 I selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of peach tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to its seed parent ‘5P495’ nectarine (unpatented) by producing fruit that is white in flesh color, freestone in type, firm in texture, mostly red in skin color, but is quite distinguished therefrom by being a peach instead of nectarine, and by producing fruit that matures about fourteen days later.
The present variety is most similar to its pollen parent ‘Snow Princess’ peach (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,570) by producing peaches that are white in flesh color, mostly red in skin color, firm in texture, large in size, freestone in type, and sub-acidic in taste, but is distinguished therefrom by blooming about five days later and by producing fruit that matures about two weeks earlier. It is to be noted that the claimed ripening time for ‘Snow Princess’ peach in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,570 was Jul. 20, 2000. It has been determined during subsequent years that the ripening time for ‘Snow Princess’ peach is usually between August 1st and August 5th, with the actually date of first pick recorded this year as Aug. 5, 2011.